Oliver Estavillo

OLIVER ESTAVILLO

Oliver Estavillo was born in Germany, 1964 as son of an American soldier and a German mother in Fulda / Germany. As a self-taught artist he has been exclusively freelance since 2006, exhibiting in Munich, Cologne, Berlin, and Fulda. From 1986 he lived and worked in Munich, and since 2006 he has now worked exclusively as a freelance artist.

Like visiting Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Oliver Estavillo’s oils are circuses of weird and wonderful creatures. Ladies with budgerigar heads and droopy hats wear their pearls high to disguise crepey necks and sagging jowels.

They gaze out of colourless eyes under dusty chandeliers and bare bulbs. These operatic gatherings are peopled with muscle men with squared hair and tanned torsos, sinewy women in tight cocktail dresses, tentacleheaded lurkers and emperors in need of new clothes.

Estavillo’s work reminds us of the transient nature of life, and that the material world is meaningless. Unlike many moralistic paintings where the sensuality of the painting undermines the main message of aesthetic futility, these works are disturbing and explicitly morbid. An artistic expression of our everyday fears about dying, these are depictions of trashy flashy pleasure islands and their grotesque party guests.

Puce-faced devils, confetti and baboon-clowns demonstrate madness, vulgarity and unlimited greed. This ultra-violent fantasism scratches beneath the glittering surface to expose decay, confronting us with our own selfish bloodlust.

From Holbein to Bernt Notke, the certainty of death has been explored throughout history, particularly the ‘Danse Macabre’, ‘Dance of Death’ or ‘Totentanz’. Each mortal holds hands with a spectre or extremely decayed body; they are led mercilessly through the steps despite their protesting. Only Death is the ultimate equaliser- ‘ob am, obreich, im Tode gleich’- Whether rich or poor, equal in death.

The artist’s paintings have found an audience of enthusiastic admirers and buyers at his many exhibitions in Munich, Cologne, Berlin, Madrid and in his exhibition "Shark-Society" at Vonderau Museum in Fulda.

Furies Disco

Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm, 2015

Predator

Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm, 2014

Purgatorial Fire

Oil and silver leaf on canvas 100 x 160 cm, 2014

Crazy Pharaohs

Oil and gold leaf on canvas 100 x 160 cm, 2014

Opera Ball Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2013

Botox Elves Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2013

Curious Muses Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2013

Bavarian Maenads Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2013

Melancholic Soft Toys – Epitaph For Our Rabbits Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2013

Shark Society Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2012

Terror Birds Carnival Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2012

Vanitas Oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm 2012

Killers’ Tango Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm, 2012

Androids Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2012

Funeral March Oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm 2012

Cannibal Meeting Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2011

Bad Times For Clowns Oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm 2011

And They Will Fall Like Snow Oil on canvas 80 x 100 cm 2011

Divas Oil and gold on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2011

Arrival Colour pencil on drawing cardboard 50 x 70 cm, 2011

Alpha Animals Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm, 2011

Cultural Popes Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2010

Beloved Colleagues Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm, 2010

Avarice Kills Honour Oil on canvas 100 x 80 cm, 2010

These Wriggly Vanities Before Death Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm, 2010

The Forgotten Saints Oil and gold on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2010

Envy Of The Hell Firstborn Oil on canvas 120 x 100 cm, 2010

Hills Oil on canvas 80 x 100 cm 2010

Combustion Of Bankers Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2009

Potential Analysis Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2009

The First Supper Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2009

Smashing The Grim Reaper Oil on canvas 120 x 100 cm, 2009

Family Ties Oil on canvas 100 x 140 cm, 2009

Veteran Reunion Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2008

Opening Of Will Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2008

Philosophers’ Training Oil on canvas 100 x 160 cm 2008

The Charm Of The Middle Ages Oil on canvas 120 x 100 cm, 2007

The Triumph Of The Guzzler’s Goddess Oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm 2007

Domestic Pigs Oil on canvas 100 x 140 cm 2007

Minotaurs’ Sauna Oil on canvas, 100 x 140 cm 2007

Only The Very Stupid Calves ‌ Oil on canvas 80 x 100 cm, 2006

Macabre Dance School Oil on canvas 70 x 100 cm 2006

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